וַיִּשְׁכֹּן בְּתוֹכֵנוּ
καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν
How Mamre, the Mishkan, the Sukkah, and Immanu-El prepare Klal Yisrael to behold the Kavod of Hashem dwelling in an Ohel.
What Delitzsch calls a Mishkan, the OJB translates Ohel
There is a creed that goes too far שְׁלֹשָׁה עָשָׂר עִקָּרִים — Sheloshah Asar Ikkarim, the Thirteen Principles (Foundations) of Faith, teaching that the Most High is incorporeal, true, He is Spirit (Yochanan 4:24), but those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The Rambam's Judeo-Arabic words written around 1168 in his Commentary on the Mishnah, miss the point that Hashem was pleased that all His fullness have its mishkan in Moshiach. The Siddur touches this topic in two popular forms: the prose Ani Ma'amin ("I believe…") recited after Shacharis, and the hymn Yigdal, composed in the 14th century by Daniel ben Yehudah of Rome. The third principle is the one referred to here.
In 2Kefa 1:13 the Shliach says ἐν τούτῳ τῷ σκηνώματι ("in this tent") referring to his earthly existence.
וְנָכוֹן בְּעֵינַי לְהַזְכִּיר וּלְהָעִיר אֶתְכֶם כָּל־יְמֵי הֱיוֹתִי בַּמִּשְׁכָּן הַזֶּה.
I think it right, as long as I am in this mishkan...
The putting off of the tent, which the Shliach knows is coming soon
וְנָכוֹן בְּעֵינַי לְהַזְכִּיר וּלְהָעִיר אֶתְכֶם כָּל־יְמֵי הֱיוֹתִי בָּאֹהֶל הַזֶּה.
This is the way the OJB translates the verse.
Let His Word be true and every man a liar (Rom 3:4). In Moshiach kol melo Elokim finds its bodily maon laShechinah (dwelling place for the Shechinah, mitgashem). This is what the Shlichim affirm. Yochanan says the Dvar took flesh and tabernacled in it. The Mishkan was the dwelling. So Shaul writes of Moshiach: ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς in Colossians 2:9). The verb is dwells. The rooms that follow trace that dwelling from Mamre to the manger.
Four Tanakh witnesses that place the coming King on the divine side of the line
Tehillim 110:1
לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר נְאֻם יְהוָה לַאדֹנִי שֵׁב לִימִינִי עַד־אָשִׁית אֹיְבֶיךָ הֲדֹם לְרַגְלֶיךָ׃
Of Dovid, a mizmor. The declaration of Hashem to Adoni (my Lord): "Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."
Dovid, the King, calls this one "my Lord." Hashem seats him at His own right hand, sharing the throne. Verse 5 reverses the picture: אֲדֹנָי עַל־יְמִינְךָ — Adonai, the divine title, "at your right hand." Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 18 says that in the age to come Hakadosh Baruch Hu will seat Melech HaMoshiach at His right hand, citing this verse. Rebbe Yeshua pressed exactly this question: if Dovid calls him Lord, how is he only Dovid's son? (Mattityahu 22:41–46).
The Masoretic pointing לַאדֹנִי (adoni) is the ordinary address to a human superior, not לַאדֹנָי (Adonai). Rashi applies the psalm to Avraham. The answer is not in the vowel but in the seating: no human is enthroned beside Hashem. When Rabbi Akiva taught that the thrones of Daniel 7:9 were "one for Him and one for Dovid," Rabbi Yose HaGlili rebuked him for profaning the Shechinah (Sanhedrin 38b). The sages felt the weight of a shared throne.
Malachi 3:1
הִנְנִי שֹׁלֵחַ מַלְאָכִי וּפִנָּה־דֶרֶךְ לְפָנָי וּפִתְאֹם יָבוֹא אֶל־הֵיכָלוֹ הָאָדוֹן אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּם מְבַקְשִׁים וּמַלְאַךְ הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּם חֲפֵצִים הִנֵּה־בָא אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת׃
"Hinneni, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And suddenly HaAdon whom you seek will come to His Heikhal, and the Malach HaBrit in whom you delight — behold, he comes," says Hashem Tzva'os.
Three details. The forerunner prepares the way "before Me": Hashem Himself is the One who comes. הָאָדוֹן with the definite article is used in the Tanakh of G-d alone (Shemos 23:17; 34:23; Yeshayahu 1:24; 3:1; 10:16, 33; 19:4). And the Beis HaMikdash is called "His Heikhal": the Temple belongs to the One who enters it. That Heikhal was standing when Rebbe Yeshua taught in it, and it fell in 70 C.E.
Yeshayahu 9:5 (9:6 in English Bibles)
כִּי־יֶלֶד יֻלַּד־לָנוּ בֵּן נִתַּן־לָנוּ וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְׂרָה עַל־שִׁכְמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ פֶּלֶא יוֹעֵץ אֵל גִּבּוֹר אֲבִיעַד שַׂר־שָׁלוֹם׃
For a yeled is born to us, a ben is given to us, and the government will be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Peleh Yoetz, El Gibbor, Avi-Ad, Sar Shalom — Wonder-Counselor, Mighty G-d, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.
A child who is born is named El Gibbor. One chapter later the same title belongs to Hashem: שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב שְׁאָר יַעֲקֹב אֶל־אֵל גִּבּוֹר — "a remnant of Yaakov will return to El Gibbor" (10:21). The Targum of Yonatan identifies this child as Moshiach. The Yeled is human; the Name is divine.
Rashi reads the titles as names of Hashem who does the calling: "the Wonder-Counselor, Mighty G-d, Eternal Father calls his name Sar Shalom," and applies the child to Chizkiyahu. AFII's exhibit on Yeshayahu 9:6 in the Tovia Singer series answers this syntax in detail.
Daniel 7:13–14 (Aramaic)
חָזֵה הֲוֵית בְּחֶזְוֵי לֵילְיָא וַאֲרוּ עִם־עֲנָנֵי שְׁמַיָּא כְּבַר אֱנָשׁ אָתֵה הֲוָה וְעַד־עַתִּיק יוֹמַיָּא מְטָה וּקְדָמוֹהִי הַקְרְבוּהִי׃ וְלֵהּ יְהִב שָׁלְטָן וִיקָר וּמַלְכוּ וְכֹל עַמְמַיָּא אֻמַיָּא וְלִשָּׁנַיָּא לֵהּ יִפְלְחוּן שָׁלְטָנֵהּ שָׁלְטָן עָלַם דִּי־לָא יֶעְדֵּה וּמַלְכוּתֵהּ דִּי־לָא תִתְחַבַּל׃
I was watching in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Bar Enosh was coming; he came to the Atik Yomin and was brought near before Him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve him (יִפְלְחוּן). His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be destroyed.
In the Tanakh, riding the clouds is what Hashem does: הִנֵּה יְהוָה רֹכֵב עַל־עָב קַל (Yeshayahu 19:1; cf. Tehillim 104:3). The Gemara applies this verse to Moshiach: if Yisrael merits, he comes "with the clouds of heaven"; if not, "lowly and riding on a donkey" (Sanhedrin 98a). Before the Sanhedrin, Rebbe Yeshua claimed this verse as his own (Markos 14:62), and the Kohen Gadol tore his garments. The verb in verse 14 is the subject of the next room.
What the three young men would not give Nevuchadnetzar's gods, all nations give the Bar Enosh
Biblical Aramaic pelach: to serve in worship, to render cultic service to a deity
לֵאלָהָךְ לָא פָלְחִין וּלְצֶלֶם דַּהֲבָא דִּי הֲקֵימְתָּ לָא סָגְדִין׃
"Your gods they do not serve, and the golden image you set up they do not worship."
Withheld from every power but the G-d of Yisrael
וְכֹל עַמְמַיָּא אֻמַיָּא וְלִשָּׁנַיָּא לֵהּ יִפְלְחוּן׃
"All peoples, nations, and tongues will serve him."
Rendered by every nation to the Bar Enosh
Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah were loyal civil servants of Bavel; they had been "appointed over the administration of the province" (3:12). They served the king politically every day. Yet the verb for that service is never פְּלַח. They reserved פְּלַח for G-d alone, and went into the furnace rather than give it to another. Look at every place the word appears in the Aramaic of the Tanakh:
| Verse | Aramaic | Object of the service |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel 3:12 | לֵאלָהָךְ לָא פָלְחִין | Nevuchadnetzar's gods — refused |
| Daniel 3:14 | לֵאלָהַי לָא אִיתֵיכוֹן פָּלְחִין | "My gods you do not serve" — the king's charge |
| Daniel 3:17 | אֱלָהַנָא דִּי־אֲנַחְנָא פָלְחִין | "Our G-d whom we serve" |
| Daniel 3:18 | לֵאלָהָךְ לָא־אִיתַנָא פָלְחִין | The king's gods — refused again |
| Daniel 3:28 | דִּי לָא־יִפְלְחוּן … לָהֵן לֵאלָהֲהוֹן | No god "except their own G-d" |
| Daniel 6:17 | אֱלָהָךְ דִּי אַנְתְּ פָּלַח־לֵהּ | Daniel's G-d, served continually |
| Daniel 6:21 | אֱלָהָךְ דִּי אַנְתְּ פָלַח־לֵהּ | The same, at the lions' den |
| Daniel 7:14 | לֵהּ יִפְלְחוּן | The Bar Enosh who comes with the clouds |
| Daniel 7:27 | וְכֹל שָׁלְטָנַיָּא לֵהּ יִפְלְחוּן | The Most High (Elyonin) and His everlasting kingdom |
| Ezra 7:24 | פָלְחֵי בֵּית אֱלָהָא | The servants of the House of G-d |
The word that Daniel's friends would not give to a statue of gold is the word the nations give to the One like a Bar Enosh. Either Daniel 7:14 commands idolatry, which is impossible, or the Bar Enosh stands on the side of the line where only G-d stands. He comes as a man; he is served as G-d. That is the Incarnation stated in Aramaic, six centuries before Beit Lechem.
Some commentators take the Bar Enosh as a figure for the holy people (7:18, 27), and read יִפְלְחוּן in 7:14 as political submission. But the verb's usage in Daniel never stretches to human rule, and the chapter itself distinguishes the figure who comes with the clouds from the saints who receive the kingdom through him.
Bereshis 18 — the Foreshadow at Mamre
Bereshis 18:1–2
וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו יְהוָה בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב פֶּתַח־הָאֹהֶל כְּחֹם הַיּוֹם׃ וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים נִצָּבִים עָלָיו…
Hashem appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the opening of the tent in the heat of the day. He lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing over him…
Bereshis 18:8, 22, 33
וְהוּא־עֹמֵד עֲלֵיהֶם תַּחַת הָעֵץ וַיֹּאכֵלוּ׃
He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.
וַיִּפְנוּ מִשָּׁם הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיֵּלְכוּ סְדֹמָה וְאַבְרָהָם עוֹדֶנּוּ עֹמֵד לִפְנֵי יְהוָה׃
The men turned from there and went toward Sedom, while Avraham still stood before Hashem.
וַיֵּלֶךְ יְהוָה כַּאֲשֶׁר כִּלָּה לְדַבֵּר אֶל־אַבְרָהָם…
And Hashem went His way when He had finished speaking with Avraham…
Bereshis 19:1, 24
וַיָּבֹאוּ שְׁנֵי הַמַּלְאָכִים סְדֹמָה בָּעֶרֶב…
The two malachim came to Sedom in the evening…
וַיהוָה הִמְטִיר עַל־סְדֹם וְעַל־עֲמֹרָה גָּפְרִית וָאֵשׁ מֵאֵת יְהוָה מִן־הַשָּׁמָיִם׃
And Hashem rained brimstone and fire on Sedom and Amorah from Hashem out of the heavens.
Three men come; two arrive at Sedom. The third is the One before whom Avraham "still stood," and the Torah calls him by the Shem HaMeforash. He walks, stands, speaks, and eats at the door of a tent. Then, at 19:24, Hashem on earth rains fire "from Hashem in heaven." The scene does not make the divine essence a body; it shows Hashem freely taking a visible human form to meet His friend, and doing so at the opening of the tent. The first theophany in human form happens at an אֹהֶל. Hold onto that tent: it becomes the Mishkan, the Sukkah, and the flesh of Yochanan 1:14. And the Torah is not shy about וּתְמֻנַת יְהוָה יַבִּיט — Moshe "beholds the form of Hashem" (Bamidbar 12:8).
The Gemara says the malachim only appeared to eat (Bava Metzia 86b), and the Rambam treats the whole visit as a prophetic vision (Moreh Nevuchim II:42). The plain text, however, keeps Avraham standing before Hashem after the other two men have left, and keeps the meal real enough that Sarah laughs at the tent door.
Shemos 25:8 and 40:34–38
Shemos 25:8
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם׃
Let them make Me a Mikdash, and I will dwell among them.
Targum Onkelos — the Shechinah named
וְיַעְבְּדוּן קֳדָמַי מַקְדְּשָׁא וְאַשְׁרֵי שְׁכִינְתִּי בֵּינֵיהוֹן׃
They shall make a Mikdash before Me, and I will cause My Shechinah to rest among them.
The root שׁ־כ־ן gives us both מִשְׁכָּן (Mishkan, the dwelling) and שְׁכִינָה (Shechinah, the indwelling Presence). Note the phrase בְּתוֹכָם, "in their midst." It will return word for word in the Hebrew of Yochanan 1:14.
Shemos 40:34–38
וַיְכַס הֶעָנָן אֶת־אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וּכְבוֹד יְהוָה מָלֵא אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן׃ וְלֹא־יָכֹל מֹשֶׁה לָבוֹא אֶל־אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד כִּי־שָׁכַן עָלָיו הֶעָנָן וּכְבוֹד יְהוָה מָלֵא אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן׃ וּבְהֵעָלוֹת הֶעָנָן מֵעַל הַמִּשְׁכָּן יִסְעוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּכֹל מַסְעֵיהֶם׃ וְאִם־לֹא יֵעָלֶה הֶעָנָן וְלֹא יִסְעוּ עַד־יוֹם הֵעָלֹתוֹ׃ כִּי עֲנַן יְהוָה עַל־הַמִּשְׁכָּן יוֹמָם וְאֵשׁ תִּהְיֶה לַיְלָה בּוֹ לְעֵינֵי כָל־בֵּית־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּכָל־מַסְעֵיהֶם׃
The cloud covered the Ohel Mo'ed, and the Kavod of Hashem filled the Mishkan. Moshe could not enter the Ohel Mo'ed, because the cloud dwelt upon it and the Kavod of Hashem filled the Mishkan. Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Mishkan, the Bnei Yisrael would set out on all their journeys; and if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day it was taken up. For the cloud of Hashem was over the Mishkan by day, and fire was in it by night, before the eyes of all Beis Yisrael throughout all their journeys.
This is the answer to the Third Ikkar's worry. The Kavod filled a structure of wood, cloth, and skins, and was seen by all Yisrael — yet no one in Yisrael concluded that Hashem had become a tent. The Presence dwelt in a place without being reduced to it. The Mishkan traveled with a people in the wilderness; the Kavod moved when the tent moved. Yochanan's claim is that the same Kavod has now taken a dwelling of flesh: καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ — "and we beheld his Kavod."
The festival of temporary dwellings and the dwelling of G-d with men
Vayikra 23:42–43
בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים כָּל־הָאֶזְרָח בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשְׁבוּ בַּסֻּכֹּת׃ לְמַעַן יֵדְעוּ דֹרֹתֵיכֶם כִּי בַסֻּכּוֹת הוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּהוֹצִיאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃
You shall dwell in sukkos seven days; every native in Yisrael shall dwell in sukkos, so that your generations may know that I made the Bnei Yisrael dwell in sukkos when I brought them out of the land of Mitzrayim. I am Hashem your G-d.
Rabbi Eliezer taught that the sukkos of the wilderness were the ananei hakavod, the clouds of glory (Sukkah 11b). On that reading, the sukkah every Jew sits in each autumn remembers the Shechinah itself overshadowing Yisrael — the same cloud that covered the Mishkan. Sukkos is the festival of G-d's dwelling with His people.
Zecharyah 14:16
וְהָיָה כָּל־הַנּוֹתָר מִכָּל־הַגּוֹיִם הַבָּאִים עַל־יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם וְעָלוּ מִדֵּי שָׁנָה בְשָׁנָה לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֺת לְמֶלֶךְ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וְלָחֹג אֶת־חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת׃
All who are left from the nations that came against Yerushalayim will go up year by year to bow down to the King, Hashem Tzva'os, and to keep Chag HaSukkos.
Sukkos is the festival the nations keep in the days of Moshiach, bowing before the King — the scene of Daniel 7:14, where "all peoples, nations, and tongues" serve the One given the kingdom. Yechezkel promised the same: וְהָיָה מִשְׁכָּנִי עֲלֵיהֶם, "My Mishkan shall be over them" (37:27).
In the Greek of the Brit Chadasha the festival is ἡ σκηνοπηγία, "the booth-pitching" (Yochanan 7:2), and its noun is σκηνή — the same word the Septuagint uses for the Mishkan and the ohel. During that very festival Rebbe Yeshua stood up on the last great day, during the water-pouring of Hoshana Rabbah, and cried, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (7:37); and beneath the great lamps of the Simchas Beis HaSho'evah he said, "I am the light of the world" (8:12). And the Hisgalus closes with the festival fulfilled: ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ σκηνώσει μετ᾽ αὐτῶν — "Behold, the Mishkan of G-d is with men, and He will tabernacle with them" (Revelation 21:3).
Yeshayahu 7:14, 8:8–10, and 9:5 read as one Sefer Immanu-El
Yeshayahu 7:14
לָכֵן יִתֵּן אֲדֹנָי הוּא לָכֶם אוֹת הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּ אֵל׃
Therefore Adonoi Himself will give you an os, a sign: hinneh, the almah will conceive and bear a ben, and she will call his name Immanu-El.
Yeshayahu 8:8, 10
…וְהָיָה מֻטּוֹת כְּנָפָיו מְלֹא רֹחַב־אַרְצְךָ עִמָּנוּ אֵל׃
…and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanu-El.
עֻצוּ עֵצָה וְתֻפָר דַּבְּרוּ דָבָר וְלֹא יָקוּם כִּי עִמָּנוּ אֵל׃
Take counsel together, and it will be frustrated; speak a word, and it will not stand — for G-d is with us.
Yeshayahu 7–12 is a single movement. The sign-child of 7:14 owns the land in 8:8 ("your land, O Immanu-El"), and in 9:5 the child born to us carries the government and the Name El Gibbor. Read together, Immanu-El is not a pious slogan for a baby; it is a description of who the baby is. Mattityahu reads it so: ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν ὁ θεός — "which translated means, G-d with us" (1:23).
Now set the rooms side by side. At Mamre, Hashem stood at the door of Avraham's tent. In the wilderness, He filled a tent of skins. Every Sukkos, Yisrael sits in a booth under the memory of His cloud. In Yeshayahu, He promises to be with us through a son born of an almah. "G-d with us" was always what the Mishkan meant. Immanu-El is the Mishkan with a heartbeat.
For the almah/parthenos question itself, see AFII's dedicated exhibit in the Disenchantment of the Tovia Singer Siren Song series.
Yochanan 1:14, σκηνόω, and the Hebrew words for Incarnation
Yochanan 1:14 — Greek
Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός, πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.
Hebrew — Franz Delitzsch, with bracketed glosses
וְהַדָּבָר [מימרא] נִהְיָה בָשָׂר וַיִּשְׁכֹּן בְּתוֹכֵנוּ [מימרא עצמו אלוקים נִהְיָה משיח] וַנֶּחֱזֶה כְבוֹדוֹ כִּכְבוֹד בֵּן יָחִיד לְאָבִיו רַב־חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת׃
Orthodox Jewish Bible
And the Dvar HASHEM did mitgashem (become bodily) and made his Sukkah, his Mishkan (Tabernacle) among us, and we gazed upon his Shekhinah, the Shechinah of the Ben Yachid from Elohim HaAv, full of HASHEM's Chesed v'Emes.
Every phrase of the verse is a Mishkan phrase. ἐσκήνωσεν is the aorist of σκηνόω, "to pitch a tent, to tabernacle," built on σκηνή, the Septuagint word for the Mishkan and the Ohel Mo'ed. δόξα is the Kavod that filled the Mishkan in Shemos 40:34. χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας is רַב־חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת from the Thirteen Attributes revealed to Moshe at Sinai (Shemos 34:6), and Delitzsch renders it with exactly those words. Moshe asked to see the Kavod and heard רַב־חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת; the Shlichim beheld the Kavod and saw it full of the same. And to a Jewish ear, the Greek consonants s-k-n echo the Hebrew sh-k-n of Mishkan and Shechinah. That is an echo of sound, not a shared etymology — but Yochanan, writing as a Jew, chose the one Greek verb that rings with it.
The heart of the Hebrew rendering. It is a near-verbatim echo of Shemos 25:8, וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם — "I will dwell among them" becomes "he dwelt among us." The promise of the Mishkan is reported as fulfilled, in the first person plural of eyewitnesses.
Where the Hebrew speaks of Hashem drawing near, the Targumim often say "the Memra of Hashem." Yaakov's vow at Beit-El, "Hashem shall be my G-d," becomes in Onkelos וִיהֵי מֵימְרָא דַייָ לִי לֶאֱלָהּ, "the Memra of Hashem shall be my G-d" (Bereshis 28:21). The Memra is not a creature beside Hashem; it is Hashem Himself in His self-revealing approach. Glossing הַדָּבָר as מימרא tells a Jewish reader that the Dvar of Yochanan 1:1 and 1:14 is the Memra of the Targum: the Memra Himself, Elokim, became Moshiach.
The literal rendering of σὰρξ ἐγένετο. בָּשָׂר is the Tanakh's word for frail, mortal humanity: כָּל־הַבָּשָׂר חָצִיר, "all flesh is grass" (Yeshayahu 40:6). The Dvar did not take an angelic or glorified body; he took the same flesh as the grass that withers.
The OJB's word — "the Dvar HASHEM did mitgashem"
Mitgashem: "making himself bodily," "becoming embodied." In the yeshivish idiom of the OJB, "did mitgashem" = הִתְגַּשֵּׁם, he became bodily.
The Rambam's word for the heresy he condemns is הַגְשָׁמָה (hagshamah), the verbal noun of the hif'il הִגְשִׁים, "to make something bodily." That is the error of men who impose a body on G-d in their idolatrous thinking in wrong-headed corporealism or anthropomorphism and idolatry. But in Daniel, as seen below, worship or service of the Moshiach is not idolatry. (Note carefully: Sanhedrin 98a and also Rashi assert that the Bar Enosh is the Moshiach, see Mikraot Gedolot Daniel 7:13.) But the Word of G-d settles all arguments. In the inerrant Bible the friends of Daniel refuse to PELACH the golden idol but ALL PEOPLES will PELACH the Bar Enosh, who is not an idol (compare Daniel 3:12 and Daniel 7:14). Keil and Delitzsch state that the Aramaic word pelach is used exclusively of service and homage due to G-d in their commentary on Daniel 7:14 (with cross-references to Daniel 3:12–13, 3:17, and Ezra 7:19, 7:24). The specific location: In the Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on Daniel, under the discussion of Daniel 7:13–14 and Daniel 7:27. The assertion: The authors affirm that pelach (referred to as pelach in Biblical Chaldee / Aramaic) is used IN THE HEBREW BIBLE only for the religious service and reverence rendered to G-d. The way the word is used in the Bible is the inerrant key to its meaning, and we don't go beyond what is written (1 Corinthians 4:6). The theological application: Keil and Delitzsch apply this to argue that the "one like a son of man" receiving pelach in Daniel 7:14 is granted a universal, everlasting kingdom and divine honor, aligning with the elohut of Moshiach taught elsewhere in the Tanakh (see below). The OJB does not use Rambam's word for the heresy he condemns is הַגְשָׁמָה (hagshamah), the verbal noun of the hif'il הִגְשִׁים, "to make something bodily" but instead answers with the hitpa'el, the reflexive: the Dvar הִתְגַּשֵּׁם — made himself bodily. The same root, two different subjects. In hagshamah, man, in his idolatrous reprobate mind, corporealizes G-d; in mitgashem, the Dvar freely takes on the "ohel" which Kefa refers to as human existence (2Kefa 1:13). Moshiach thereby is tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (MJ 4:14-16). The Third Ikkar forbids the first: הַגְשָׁמָה (hagshamah), the verbal noun of the hif'il הִגְשִׁים, "to make something bodily."; Yochanan 1:14 proclaims the second: the hitpa'el, the reflexive: the Dvar הִתְגַּשֵּׁם — made himself bodily, took up the ohel of human existence. Similarly, the Kavod took up the Mishkan.
The root appears as a noun only in the Aramaic of Daniel, and always means body: the bodies of the three young men that the fire did not touch (3:27, דִּי לָא־שְׁלֵט נוּרָא בְּגֶשְׁמְהוֹן), Nevuchadnetzar's body wet with the dew of heaven (4:30; 5:21), and the body of the fourth beast destroyed (7:11, וְהוּבַד גִּשְׁמַהּ). The decisive verse joins this exhibit's two key words:
וִיהַבוּ גֶשְׁמְהוֹן דִּי לָא־יִפְלְחוּן וְלָא־יִסְגְּדוּן לְכָל־אֱלָהּ לָהֵן לֵאלָהֲהוֹן׃
"They yielded their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own G-d" (Daniel 3:28). Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah gave their גֶּשֶׁם to the fire to keep their פְּלַח for G-d alone (Room III). Four chapters later, every nation gives that פְּלַח to the Bar Enosh. The One served as G-d in 7:14 is the One who, in Yochanan 1:14, did mitgashem.
Medieval Hebrew built on the root: גַּשְׁמִי (material), גַּשְׁמִיּוּת (materiality), הַגְשָׁמָה (corporealization). In Chassidus and in Yiddish, גשמיות (gashmiyes) is the physical world set against רוחניות (ruchniyes), the spiritual. The Chassidic task is to draw ruchniyes down into gashmiyes and make the lower world a דִּירָה בַּתַּחְתּוֹנִים, a dwelling place for Hashem below. The OJB's mitgashem says this happened in person: the Dvar entered gashmiyus and made his dwelling among us.
Today הִתְגַּשֵּׁם also means "to be realized, to come true," as when a dream or a prophecy materializes. The double sense is exact. When the Dvar did mitgashem, the promise of Shemos 25:8, וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם, came true in the ohel of human existence, as Kefa uses the term in 2Kefa 1:13.
Biblical Hebrew גֶּשֶׁם means "rain," and lexicons generally treat it as a separate root from Aramaic "body." Still, the darshan will hear Hoshea 6:3: וְיָבוֹא כַגֶּשֶׁם לָנוּ, "He will come to us like the rain" — Hashem descending from heaven to the earth.
From the root גלם, as in גָּלְמִי רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ, "Your eyes saw my unformed substance" (Tehillim 139:16) — the body being knit in the womb. "Incarnated" is הִתְגַּלֵּם or נִתְגַּלֵּם; "the Incarnate Dvar" is הַדָּבָר הַמְּגֻלָּם. This is why Yeshayahu 7:14 and Mishlei 30:4 and Psalm 33:6 are verses we dare not mistranslate.
A garment image the Tanakh already uses for the divine Presence entering a man: וְרוּחַ יְהוָה לָבְשָׁה אֶת־גִּדְעוֹן, "the Ruach of Hashem clothed itself with Gid'on" (Shoftim 6:34). Hashem is said to be clothed in light and majesty (Tehillim 104:1–2). The wearer is not the garment.
The Peshitta renders ἐσκήνωσεν with the Aramaic root גנן, "to spread over, overshadow, dwell" — the same root it uses when the power of the Most High "overshadows" Miryam in Lukas 1:35. In Aramaic, the dwelling of the Dvar and the overshadowing at the conception are one verb.